The publisher’s benchmark foreign-exchange poll, which ranks banks according to market share, is one of the highlights of the calendar for every banker in this intensely competitive business.

This year, yet again, the poll showed a clear winner: Deutsche Bank. This is the German powerhouse’s seventh win on the trot—a remarkable achievement by any measure. And with a global market share of more than 15%, it is streets ahead of its nearest rival, which is now Barclays Capital (the U.K. bank triumphantly bumped UBS into third place this year, with a market share of 10.75%.)

And yet, while the knees-up to mark the poll’s release last night was a suitably boozy and raucous affair, it was not characterized by unrestrained glee.

The reason: Deutsche’s market share fell. Quite markedly, in fact, by around three percentage points. Barclays Capital and UBS both also saw a decline; it’s just that UBS’s share slid faster than its rival’s.

What’s more, the chasing pack: Citigroup, JPMorgan, HSBC, Credit Suisse, and the like, had really expected to do better. Their market shares are all up. Not surprising given they’ve all been putting a lot more focus on this cash cow business of late, and they expected to see a much bigger run-up in volumes, market share, and positions.